Prodigal
Prologue
Corporal Yestin sat at the controls of his scout craft in the darkness of deep space, with only the lights from his instrument panel to add color to his duty cycle. Sgt Gorso slept behind him in the ship's cramped rest bay, quietly snoring until it was time to relieve him. I don't know what I thought was so bloody romantic about the exlporation corps. It's not like anything ever happens out here. The vids totally lie about how boring this is.
The Autori Empire had conquered most of it's own galaxy and parts of two others, and for going on five centuries now, had successfully held on to them as well. There were no new planets to uncover in the space between them...no new sentients to discover. His recruiter lied to him, no doubt about that. Heh, everyone says that, he thought with a chuckle.
Still...there was something to be said for being out here with only one crewmate and 400 tons of scout and survey vessel to keep you safe and sane. The independence, the sheer thrill of knowing no one would or could get to you in time if something went wrong...and the 50% increase in duty earnings due to these hazards that he embraced.
Yes, this is just the first step. I'll finish my 4 stan-cycles, collect my earnings...either become a fighter pilot or a commander...or go independent and get my own ship and crew...
His musing was cut short as another indicator on his instrument panel joined the others, rapidly blinking to get his attention. He pushed the icon on the plasi-glass panel to see what the sensors had found.
Probably another rogue asteroid. Out here they don't gather in nice neat belts...I wonder..?
<MAN:OBJ:UNK:ORG> is what the display showed him. He clicked it again for verification. After a split second delay:
<MAN:OBJ:UNK:ORG>
Out here? He looked at distance to target, it was about 40k kilometers off the port side. That close? He looked back over his shoulder at the sleeping Sgt, and decided to let him sleep. He began plugging in course alterations to get a closer look at their mystery object UNK:ORG.
His heart began to race as the ship turned at his command and began to close on the target.
“What're you up to Corporal?” asked a familiar and grumpy voice.
“Going to check out a sensor hit, Sergeant.”
“What? We finally get something out here?” he said excitedly as he unbuckled from his bunk and put on his service jacket, and stood behind the corporal, looking at the indicators.
“It would seem so...'Manufactured Object: Unknown Origin' means it's not ours, and it's not natural. 'Course, it could just be debris...”
“Debris from what? There's no record of other ships coming out here. How big is it?”
The corporal typed up a query, and displayed the information on the panel next to him.
Gorso sat in the co pilot's seat next to the corporal, and dragged the output over to his station.
“20 meters by 30 meters...that's too small for a vessel to be out here by itself, it's gotta be debris.”
“Maybe, sir, we're closing to 10k to take better readings.” The Sgt nodded, and Yestin began to run his hands over the panel again, issuing commands. They both heard the familiar hum of the sensor equipment sending out it's various light and sound waves. Soon, a picture appeared on the screen,
It looked like it had two hulls, with a smaller bit of ship joining them. It listed slightly, but otherwise looked intact.
“Well, I'll be dammed. What do you think that is corporal?”
“Sir, I don't know. It's not one of ours. Lak'Vor, maybe?”
The sergeant chuckled. “Son, there hasn't been a distinct Lak'Vor culture in 200 standard cycles. Besides, they were all about a-symmetrical designs. This is very uniform. Well, log it I guess. Mark it as 'MOUO 1', dump a buoy, and send for a scavenge team. Return us to our previous course, I'm gonna finish my rest cycle...” He began to move back to his bunk, when the corporal grabbed his arm.
“Sir..?!”
Gorso turned and looked at the display. Lights had appeared on the object, seemingly turning on, and it had righted itself, relative to their position. A pair of blue lights than ran parallel on each side of both hulls brightened, and brought the object closer, slowly.
“Well, well. Maybe it's a probe of some kind. Our scans probably 'woke' it up...let the scavenge team know that we...”
“Sir, we are being queried!”
“What? Put it on audio.” The corporal nodded, and with a push of an icon, the cabin was full of noise.
“..osk? Doh toh Vah? Eden, foRr. SasS, va ko, OtoRri, vosk?”
“What language is that?!”
“Keep calm, Corporal.” His brow furrowed. He hadn't heard that language before, that's for sure.
He pressed an icon. “Unknown vessel, this is Auspice. Please identify yourself, over.”
There was nothing but silence for a moment or two, then...
“...Aw speece. We are Eden as vesSel Fortune, oveRr.”
The sergeant dropped back into his seat. That was too quick for a translation program. They already knew what language they spoke. They already spoke a pidgin version of it. What did that mean?
“Fortune, please state your destination and intention.” Off the comm, he motioned for the corporal to spin up the tactical computer, and bring the defensive systems online.
“Awspeece, qweree. Are yoo OtoRi vessel.”
Gorso looked at the corporal, who only shrugged.
“Affirmative Fortune, we are an Autori scout and survey vessel.”
Sounds of jubilee came over the comm, and the Sergeant couldn't help but smile at the corporal. The Autori had brought peace to every star system in two galaxies. These poor sods must have been lost, or...
“Awspeece, grattitude. Yoo unexpect result of qweree, mission. We mAke deeSe quick. HonoRr, and veNGeance.” Then the comm went dead, and the smile on Gorso's face was replaced with a look of confusion.
The corporal looked up at the sergeant. “What is it?”
Gorso looked back at the display to see the Fortune, dart out and put some distance between them, and then other lights began to glow on the ship. She's so fast... he thought, then the ugly truth hit him.
“GET THOSE SCREENS UP CORPORAL! HARD TO...”
The lights on the Fortune pulsed, and two bolts hit Auspice where her engine was. She was turned into a cloud of molten motes of alloy instantly.
*************************************************************************** ***
The four man crew of the Fortune stood on their command bridge, and saluted the demise of the Auspice.
Fourth Dan'dragoon SasS Vako, their commander, stood with them, his blue skin an odd purple due to the red war lighting of the bridge.
“Life passes, debts paid. The first of many.” He intoned.
“Debts paid!” returned the crew, then took their seats.
Vako took the command couch, staring at the viewscreen with his amber eyes, pondering the events that had just unfolded. How long had his people been waiting for this day? The o'Dan of his clan had said he had a great destiny, that he would find the Autori. And he had...and he had taken the first of the debt owed.
A sense of disappointment fell over his thoughts, though, as he understood that his enemy did not recognize them.
Hard to savor vengeance when they do not remember the injustice.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
“Helmsman, plot our return jump to the Prodigal. We have good news to report. Engage when you have them calculated.”
“Aye, Dan Vako, course plotted. Engaging.”
Vako looked at his crew, as the blackness of space parted to let them pass, and wondered if they were truly ready for what was to come.
I wonder if any of us are.
Too late for me to join NaNoWriMo. I'll try again next year, I guess.
On a few completely unrelated notes:
Destiny is kicking my ass sooooo hard. If any of you guys have a tip for a solo Warlock running the board after the Sword of Crota, I'd appreciate it.
And, HONDO! Those of you who haven't already watched History of the Future Folk, watch it. NOW.
*crickets*
I just realized nobody has posted in Gameplay for almost a week.
What gives?
*shrug*
For me, it's gotten to the point where I rarely even talk here aside from when someone needs something of my charecters.
Not that that's too much of an issue, considering I really should be busy with schoolwork.
Regardless of how much I /want/ to avoid it.
From time to time, though, this place can hit an extended lull, due to most people having currently busy personal lives.
Weeks may pass before it goes back to a normal pace, but it will, once people's personal lives clear up.
Besides, it's not that bad for the game to hit lulls like these from time to time.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and all that.
Not really waiting but lang's adventure has become a solo narration i think.
Gah sorry.
I'll try to post grim/chao's responses later,
If you want, you could respond to Lewis' refusal to leave Tarka. :)
Ah crap.
I knew there was /something/ I was forgetting here.
I don't have time to catch up on that adventure at the moment, but I will by the end of the day, hopefully.
Ok, not much I can say until I know what happens with Lois..
*crickets*
I just realized nobody has posted in Gameplay for almost a week.
What gives?
So this is pretty much totally my fault. I'm doing NaNo this month, and by the time I get through my two thousand words for the day I'm just hoping that I'm typing okay because I haven't really been able to see the screen for the last three hundred words. I went to see the ophthalmologist last week and I have a much too strong prescription in my glasses as well as the usual problems I have with photosensitivity. So I ordered new lenses with the right prescription and with that transitions thing so hopefully I will be spending less time trying to hide from the hideous light of the day star...not to mention the evils of bright fluorescent lighting. Currently I'm happy if I get up in th morning and it's nice and cloudy and pleasantly dim if that gives you some idea. So until I get the new lenses I am muddling along trying to deal with the pain that it causes my eyes when I spend too much time staring at a screen. The real kicker is that the lenses are in and I can't get there to pick them up because my husband took the highway worthy car when he drove to the airport this morning and he's out of town for the next two weeks so I either have to wait or make the not very safe drive in my POS car. :(
Is it overly far Lyn? If not, try Uber or a similar car service, if one is available in your area.
It's an hour away. So yeah. But I might be able to borrow a car next week. We'll have to see.
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Dang it, you're gonna make me choke!
XD
Aww. Cute hedgehog is cute.
Also I will have my new glasses on Monday late afternoon. And I'm more than halfway done with my NaNo novel. Both things are good and hopefully this means I will be able to post again next week.
ok all, the players and GM of the #3 most active game on these boards (we are number one based on # of posts.) they said that they will be #1, and are going strong catching up at close to 50-100 posts every day.
I said there is no chance.
we are at 70,006 and have been that way for about a week
they were at 20,000 posts early Friday and are at 20,122 today.
I am sure we can continue some story lines when Lyn is not available, conversations can continue, activities to work with.
ok this is really just friendly competition. as I am in a game with several of those in that game.
Still waiting to see what's up with jabby.
I'm hoping the monks will provide a scene for that. I don't want to assume how they react.
I understand why he hasn't responded, though.
So, once Lyn gets back, Team HotGuys is ready for action. XD
Eh. I could be a girl too. Doesn't matter to me.
2/5 of the team are fine this way. XD
Dave is Bi, but he doesn't think of settro in that way, not his type, plus this is combat time, ducking is for afterwards
Settro is an extreme omnisexual.
Check tvtropes if you don't know what that means.
I'm hoping the monks will provide a scene for that. I don't want to assume how they react.
I understand why he hasn't responded, though.
I think I am at a loss as to how to respond really.
I want to leave the temple open enough for everyone to to contribute themselves.
I know Lyn has been busy with her writing and is having trouble with her eyes, but what about the rest of the older players
Haven't heard much from Mister Lurch, Kryz, FCD, and The Dalesman. I *think* DB3's posted recently but if not him too. How ya all doing? Just waiting on Lyn? Come say hi and chat about nonsense over here, LOL!
Attention all
Disregard the "challenge" post above
There may have been some miscommunications involved and i was only trying to inspire some activity.
Guess i went about it wrong.
I wonder if i need a haiatus from some of my games.
Hmmm... I wonder if anyone recalls me.
I am still alive (technically speaking) so no need to worry
I was actually wondering about you...
So, once Lyn gets back, Team HotGuys is ready for action. XD
Love the name. :D
I'm hoping the monks will provide a scene for that. I don't want to assume how they react.
I understand why he hasn't responded, though.I think I am at a loss as to how to respond really.
I want to leave the temple open enough for everyone to to contribute themselves.
Good thought, but there needs to be some structure there too. You're presenting this part of the setting, don't be afraid to write in people's reactions.
In this case I would go with a non reaction. Because seriously, who is gonna be checking the gender of either mushroom girl or a jabberwocky. That's one of those, if it doesn't bother the obvious girls I am not going to say anything moments. :P
Attention all
Disregard the "challenge" post above
There may have been some miscommunications involved and i was only trying to inspire some activity.
Guess i went about it wrong.
I wonder if i need a haiatus from some of my games.
WTF? It was a 'challenge' made in good fun I thought. And it did spark some posts and camaraderie, yes? Did something happen on the other side of this that I don't know about?
You really need to not be so hard on yourself. There's no need to be so worried about getting things wrong. Just take a deep breath and it's going to be okay. :)
My GPS says that it should take me 23 miniutes to get to my job with reasonable/normal tragic 19 with no trafic
I left 5:35
It is 6:20 and I'm still not there (red light I'm not being unsafe)
Amazon is making my GPS a dang dirty lier (I need to clock in at 6:30)
Pfft. GPS never factors in stop lights. My GPS thinks I can get downtown in five minutes. Reality check: more like twenty. Always give yourself plenty of time for stoplights and other delays. Then triple it if you're driving at rush hour. Around here if you have to drive on Washtenaw between the hours of 3 and 7, you have to plan lots of extra time for the nightly traffic jam. They even added areas for the buses to pull in so that they wouldn't block traffic and clog up the road even more. Too bad the buses won't use them. :/
Hmmm... I wonder if anyone recalls me.
I am still alive (technically speaking) so no need to worry
*waves*
I've been on a brief hiatus myself due to eye problems flaring up. Still working on NaNo, but at least now I can see and am not curled up in a ball of fatigue and headache at the end of the day.
Now if I could just finish my damn NaNo novel instead of being stuck, stuck, stuck. :(
Alright, back to the salt mines. Hmm....that would be a whole lot more interesting than the stinking palace....need to find a way to work salt mines into the conversation...that should buy me a good fifty words at least......(It's getting a bit desperate here....the characters are in open revolt and the story has taken up permanent residence in Dullsville)
Yeah!
Lyn's back!
As for NaNo: Hopefully, I'll do it next year.
Attention all
Disregard the "challenge" post above
There may have been some miscommunications involved and i was only trying to inspire some activity.
Guess i went about it wrong.
I wonder if i need a haiatus from some of my games.
WTF? It was a 'challenge' made in good fun I thought. And it did spark some posts and camaraderie, yes? Did something happen on the other side of this that I don't know about?
You really need to not be so hard on yourself. There's no need to be so worried about getting things wrong. Just take a deep breath and it's going to be okay. :)
Something did happen on the other end. It was not pretty. We have since worked things out. But i felt to just stay away from the topic for now.
I'm here! Mostly lurking because school's been busy and I've also been trying (and failing) to keep up with my own writing project.
Also it might have something to do with my having been doing a staggering amount of reading. Like, it's frankly ridiculous how much I've been reading. In a month, I've read something like 2 million words.
Generally, fanfiction is pretty trashy. Easy reads and guilty pleasure type stuff, so when I say Fallout Equestria is literally one of the most powerful pieces of fiction I have ever read I realize that sounds fairly ridiculous, but it is totally accurate. Even for non-bronies I highly recommend it.
I'll do a bit of scouring today to try and figure out where I'm needed.
Something did happen on the other end. It was not pretty. We have since worked things out. But i felt to just stay away from the topic for now.Attention all
Disregard the "challenge" post above
There may have been some miscommunications involved and i was only trying to inspire some activity.
Guess i went about it wrong.
I wonder if i need a haiatus from some of my games.
WTF? It was a 'challenge' made in good fun I thought. And it did spark some posts and camaraderie, yes? Did something happen on the other side of this that I don't know about?
You really need to not be so hard on yourself. There's no need to be so worried about getting things wrong. Just take a deep breath and it's going to be okay. :)
Sorry you had to deal with the drama. Pretty sure there were no hard feelings on this end though. *hugs*
Alright, folks, I'm back. Like for real this time. I finished my novel (Woo! Yay! Hooray!) which is a huge accomplishment for me since I usually bail around the middle of a manuscript. Lesson learned : everybody hates their novel in the middle. Like everybody. Even published successful authors. Just keep writing. As it turns out, novels are fueled by tea, sugar, and despair. They can't mature into a whole book without tears, anger, and hate...so basically these things totally come from the dark side. Good to know. ;P
So now that I am free from the manuscript from hell, it's time to get back to the game. So here is what I've noticed in my unplanned hiatus. This game is apparently also in middle of the story hell. The characters and setting aren't so new and fresh anymore and we're totally getting bogged down in details that nobody really cares about anyways. But the story isn't over yet. There's still a lot of good stuff waiting to come. Which doesn't help the people who have stalled out and have no creative juice left. So time to shake things up.
Lang's Temple Party and Team HotGuys, proceed as normal. Except you know, proceed. I will do my best to give both of these a jumpstart, but then keep it going. Team FixAWormhole just assume that you keep working for a while. I'm assuming that the device will be ready to deploy before the end of the day. I will give you the cue when it's time to deploy it. Everybody else move on to the end of third hour/beginning of lunch. Team CSI:Avalon, you're not going to find any more clues so unless you've got this case solved already just assume you're stalled out until Ginni wakes up in a few days. We'll take care of detailing your investigation in the summary phase when we skip to the weekend.
I'm gonna be rushing things along when they stall out. If you snooze, you lose. Gotta shake things up some before the game dies a slow and painful death. Be prepared to summarize the rest of the week when we get done with Monday. When we get to the weekend I expect to resolve the CSI:Avalon story, we have the harvest festival thingy and we are going to kick off the Space Explorers storyline if I have to forcibly lock Lang and Gareth in a room together until they actually talk to each other and coordinate this thing. Also want to throw in a firebird politics story, but only if people actually give a crap. If nobody really wants to interact with it, just say so and I will summarize. Anybody else got something that they're just dying to put into the lineup for the coming weekend? Speak up now! This is a collaboration and it doesn't work without everyone tossing in ideas. So let's all work together to put this slump behind us! :)
*shrug*
I would have kep moving, but I'm really just protection from the landscape here....
I don't really know what to say or do to move things along.
This is my biggest problem, as shown by every campaign I've ever run.
I am referring to Settro here, of course.
Well i had some stuff going on
Wife went to the hospital for a few days and my work schedule was crazy.
Everything getting back to normal now.
I will get some posting done tonight with lang. Last night shift for me until April...i hope
Heh, I just voluntarily gave up my only day off till Friday tomorrow. I do get thanksgiving off, but I have to be up early for travel reasons. Worked yesterday, today, tomorrow, Mon, Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh the joys of working at a really big grocery store during the holidays.
At least I'll get a good pay check outta it, but it's still gonna suck.
I would love for some firebird stuff as I wanna get Serrin involved in some of that.
Also, in case you haven't yet, you really need to download/buy Awesome Mix Vol 1.
Alright, folks, I'm back. Like for real this time. I finished my novel (Woo! Yay! Hooray!) which is a huge accomplishment for me since I usually bail around the middle of a manuscript. Lesson learned : everybody hates their novel in the middle. Like everybody. Even published successful authors. Just keep writing. As it turns out, novels are fueled by tea, sugar, and despair. They can't mature into a whole book without tears, anger, and hate...so basically these things totally come from the dark side. Good to know. ;P
So now that I am free from the manuscript from hell, it's time to get back to the game. So here is what I've noticed in my unplanned hiatus. This game is apparently also in middle of the story hell. The characters and setting aren't so new and fresh anymore and we're totally getting bogged down in details that nobody really cares about anyways. But the story isn't over yet. There's still a lot of good stuff waiting to come. Which doesn't help the people who have stalled out and have no creative juice left. So time to shake things up.
Lang's Temple Party and Team HotGuys, proceed as normal. Except you know, proceed. I will do my best to give both of these a jumpstart, but then keep it going. Team FixAWormhole just assume that you keep working for a while. I'm assuming that the device will be ready to deploy before the end of the day. I will give you the cue when it's time to deploy it. Everybody else move on to the end of third hour/beginning of lunch. Team CSI:Avalon, you're not going to find any more clues so unless you've got this case solved already just assume you're stalled out until Ginni wakes up in a few days. We'll take care of detailing your investigation in the summary phase when we skip to the weekend.
I'm gonna be rushing things along when they stall out. If you snooze, you lose. Gotta shake things up some before the game dies a slow and painful death. Be prepared to summarize the rest of the week when we get done with Monday. When we get to the weekend I expect to resolve...
Looking forward to your return inspiring folks.
It does appear lack of motivation by the players to generate the collaborative work is the biggest hurdle... Or simply memory in some cases (which I'd argue are one and the same).